The phrase "a fool and his money are easily parted" really rings true when people try to defend apple on this. The problem I have is that I don't know for sure if they even can fix it, and I have 6 days in which to get my money back, and my blood pressure back to normal.

That's an assumption on your part. What evidence do you have that every single Mac mini is bad?

Because that is the null hypothesis. They don't just pluck these things off trees fully functional and then have the HDMI go bad only if they drop it. It takes a lot of purposeful engineering to make them work in the first place, so I want evidence that a single working Mac mini exists. Apple can start by supplying them to the people who have already done two or three exchanges and are still experiencing the problem. Until that happens, evidence continues to pile up against Apple.

Even if it's 99% that are bad that still leaves an awful lot of machines that are up to spec.

Which is a pointless assertion, and absolutely not the proper way to do business. Nobody here paid to be part of the 99% with dud machines, or 50/50 or anything except there being a vanishingly small number of bad shipments. Nobody cares what the absolute number of working machines might be if we can't get one!

Not true. Apple wouldn't be working on a fix if they "didn't see it".

I see no evidence that Apple is working on a fix. Instead, they're offering stony amounts of silence to most Mac mini owners. All we know is that, at best, they're trying to diagnose the problem in the machines that have been sent back. I'm sure we all hope they're making progress on that and it leads to a fix, but it's just more wishful thinking on your part to assume that a fix is in the works (or even possible without a complete replacement, depending on what the root cause of the problem is).

Have you never had an electronic device go bad? ANY electronic device that is suspected to be bad needs to first be diagnosed. Only then can it be verified and fixed.

Like I said, Apple should be able to get a bad machine by just walking into any Apple Store and making a purchase, just like all their customers are doing. More to the point, they could have verified that replacement units they provided to affected Mac mini customers also didn't have the same defect! The fact that they didn't/couldn't do these very basic things makes me wonder if they have even half a clue as to what it is going to take to find and fix this problem.

What about all the Mac minis in the store displays? What about all the magazine reviews about the Mac minis? Every review I've read raves about the mini.

The only reason I discovered that I wasn't the only person having this problem is because the Ars Technica review mentioned it. Whether or not most reviewer/demo machines use HDMI is anybody's guess, so they might not have even had the chance of it blinking out. And, of course, how the problem exhibits might also depend on factors that simply don't crop up during light usage.

In all fairness I don't think that was the employees fault, I place blame at whomever didn't update that stores information about the issue. The employee is just going to look up what their database says.

From a customer service perspective, it's all one thing. Just like Mac mini owners don't care if it is ultimately Intel's fault for this glitch, they don't care where in the chain of support the information flow breaks down. All that they care about is that, when a problem crops up, the company takes a thoughtful approach in handling it. Apple usually has great customer satisfaction, so it is all the more troubling that they're really dropping the ball on this issue.

Quote: "FYI I exchanged mine 2 weeks later and my new one has yet to have black screen issues with 2 different monitors (have had it for 11 days now). My first mini had the issue with a monitor that I have since returned too but the new one was great on that same monitor."

So his new mini has been tested by him with the same exact setup as the bad mini, only this time with no issues. Others have posted that they have also read about similar results from other people with new minis. In fact the very next post stated:

"I feel left out I have run my Mini 2,6 Ghz for more than two weeks using the supplied HDMI -> DVI-thingie connected to an HP LP2065 monitor.

I have never had a blackout.

I got the noise once for a second when the monitor was coming out of sleep. But that has been it. Never saw it since (two weeks ago) and I pull it out of sleep several (5+) times a day."

There are also several people on 123MacMini that have new minis with no issues. So if you're getting all of your information from just one source, then maybe that's half your problem, but they do exist. You just need to research it.

"You can find anything on the internet". Pretty much verbatim what was said to me by a telephone support numpty a few weeks ago when I was going through this. I pointed out that, while a pinch of salt is necessary, it's unlikely a bunch of random folk from all over the world would all complain in a variety of forums of the same symptons at the same time.

If this were a bigger issue, we would have a better idea of the incident rates, and Apple would have no choice but to stop selling the machine until the problem was fixed.

This is already a big issue. It effects product being sold worldwide. Apples biggest mistake IMHO was using the HD4000. The HD3000 already had known issues, and PC's using the HD4000 saw those same issue. The HD4000 just doesn't seem to be ready for prime time. I'm sure Intel gave Apple a good deal on the chip, but Apple needs to ask themselves what is their reputation worth? Most people don't care that the problem stems from the Intel chip, they only know that they gave Apple their money and their Apple product doesn't work. I really hope that Apple removes the HD4000 and uses a better chip, and then offer replacements to customers who have this issue with the Intel chip. Wishful thinking

+1... Apple is probably saving $5-7 in BOM costs per Mini by eliminating the ATI Radeon 6630M, but in doing so, have put all their eggs in one basket, a foolish move, given Intel's track record with graphics. If this were only a firmware issue, Intel would have fixed it by now given the plethora of complaints from Win/Linux folks since June (see Intel forum). Given that it's likely a logic fault in the HD4000 silicon, Intel could tape-out a fix and spin another chip for Apple to do a "silent revision", but Intel will likely push back on Apple to avoid this solution since Ivy Bridge is already mid-cycle and Haswell is closing in on it's final desgn. Intel doesn't want to put resources on Ivy issues, when Haswell is on the clock. Well, no pity for Apple on this one for getting greedy and pulling out the Radeon chps from the previous 2011 version. All I can do is laugh at the Apple design team who made this decision.

I returned my Mini tonight at the local Palo Alto store, and just a word to the wise... It appeared the Genius had been instructed to strictly enforce the return period deadline, because at first he noted my order date was Nov. 01, but didn't immediately realize it was actually a BTO delivered Nov12. He brought out a monitor as if he was going to test it, but I pointed him to my RMA which said return by Nov27, and he realized it was returnable, and gave me a refund. So if you're on the fence about this, make sure you get it back within the period, because I have a feeling Apple is getting so many returned Mini's that they will start denying returns outside the period IF they CANNOT REPRODUCE the issue (which will be hard to do in most cases given its random nature!).

There are also several people on 123MacMini that have new minis with no issues. So if you're getting all of your information from just one source, then maybe that's half your problem, but they do exist. You just need to research it.

The problem with all your "research" is that it is anecdotal cherry picking, not evidential rigorous testing. Just because they haven't seen a flicker in the last day (or week or whatever) is not evidence that the problem has fixed itself or does not still exist. And know that I'm not asking anyone to prove a negative. It is because the cause seems hard to replicate (essentially random in my experience) that nobody is going to be convinced there is a real fix unless Apple directly states what the issue is (such that it can be replicated and I can thus test any mini at hand to ensure it doesn't have the problem) or they issue an update that will have everyone here saying "Yes, finally!"

So I'll grant you that there may be one or more Mac mini out there that do not have the problem. That in no way helps me in getting a working mini until Apple figures out what the difference is between the good builds and the bad builds. Until there is a solid test for the problem, it'll be hard to be confident that anything has really been fixed. I think we're all a bit tired of playing the waiting game.

So if you're on the fence about this, make sure you get it back within the period, because I have a feeling Apple is getting so many returned Mini's that they will start denying returns outside the period IF they CANNOT REPRODUCE the issue (which will be hard to do in most cases given its random nature!).

And for the latecomers ...

____________________________________________________

Extended Holiday Return Policy

Items purchased at the Apple Online Store that are received between October 27, 2012 and December 25, 2012, may be returned through January 7, 2013.

I am giving up on this Mini (2.6 - Apple SSD). Computer and Thunderbolt display going back tomorrow. The HDMI issue is one thing (it took 9 months for the blinking monitor on my 2011 MBP and 24" LED Cinema display to be worked out - thread was much longer than this one!) but the thermal design is the real back breaker for me. 94degC at 25% constant load (which is where I run things for Pro Audio) is just not going to cut it for me.

Thanks for that information. I've gotten the impression that Mountain Lion is a big leap forward to adopting more hand gestures for use with a tablet. :I know I'm going to have to go to it eventually, but I am relieved to hear from you that the big problems are limited to 2012 models so I am safe on that account.

SInce I bought my mini in October of 2011 I assume I'm going to have to pay for the upgrade to ML. Based on what you told me now I'm thinking that I might do a fresh clean install on an external drive to try things out, while leaving my Lion Boot Internal intact for the time being.

Based on what you told me now I'm thinking that I might do a fresh clean install on an external drive to try things out, while leaving my Lion Boot Internal intact for the time being.

Thanks again for your feedback! - Randy

Hi Randy, That's how I have mine, on a external drive. Just select your external drive from System Preferances > Startup Disk and it will start using that drive as your main drive. If you ever want to switch back just go back into Startup Disc and choose your internal drive.

On the advice of the Apple Care support people I have sent my Mac Mini into the Apple repair center in Singapore for the 2nd time. The first time they reinstalled the OS and told me it was fixed, within 15 minutes the screen flickered so I new it was not fixed. The repair center here is run by a 3rd party (QCD) so I do not hold any hope on them being able to do anything to diagnose the issue.

I am going to just ask for a refund and wait to hear from this thread that the problem has been fixed and I will re-buy the new model.

The editors details are at the bottom of the website. I also directed them to check this forum to see how widespread the issue is. I don't think it will hurt raising the visibility of this issue, it will at least put pressure on Apple to firstly acknowledge that there is a problem and secondly expedite a firmware fix.

Not surprising at all if you have read all 33 pages of this thread (difficult, I know). Take HDMI (port or adaptors) out of the equation and the issue hasn't been seen (except one person with a dud thunderbolt port) - someone correct me if I'm wrong...

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